Best of 2008!

Best of 2008!

1) Penultimate days in US

The excitement was sky high. From the moment when return date was finalized to the moment when I actually boarded the flight, it was awesome. We enjoyed the last couple of days to the max. Best part was the farewell and all the good words for work done from all the bigshots of Navini. The last 'sentimental' drive to airport with Jassi 'paaji' is still in front of my eyes.

2) Meeting my LOVE after dot 400 days

Probably there wasnt a single day when she hasn't come to my mind in these last 400 days spent in Dallas. During flight - I continued to think about her. The smile just kept growing bigger and bigger, every time I thought about her. And when time for our first meet came - I was literally laughing! Love you India. Love you Bangalore.

3) One night at "OmbattuGudde"

The trek will go down in the books of my life as a big failed attempt. We ( amith, kuntS and me ) managed just to touch the foot of the hill. Because of heavy rain, we had to back of and return to civilization. We spent one night amidst wild animals in dense forest of shiradi ghat. Unforgettable night stay. We had camped beside river for our night stay and Moon was glowing at its best. The glittering leaf's because of moon light's reflection in rain - adding to that, the back-ground sound of river water... amazing.

Be what you want to be

Taking things the way they come --

Nothing is fine as finding paradise and "shitting" in the summer sun!

La la la la summer sun.. shitting in the summer sun!

Living life the easy way,

got your way to let it run,

nothing is as cool as drifting in the sun light,

Sippin' on Bacardi Rum.

4) Hyderabad

 Great trip! Enjoyed a lot - specially the 'Hyderabadi Biryani'. 

http://usira.blogspot.com/2008/10/h-y-d-e-r-a-b-a-d.html

5) One more fareWell - Last day in Navini (Cisco). 

After being associated with Navini for 3 years, every one @ navini had become like part of my family. Great bunch of people and had enjoyed working hell a lot. 

6) First encounter with snow in Korea

7) Skiing @ Jisan forest resort

http://usira.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-get-knocked-down.html

8) 4th and 5th Day of India Vs England 2nd test at Chennai

Sehwag set it up in the 4th innings and the little master finished it with grace! Test match at its best. Was glued to cric-buzz for 2 complete days, hardly doing any fruitfull work. The result was worth celebrating!

Movies that I enjoyed watching this year:

a) Taare Zameen Par

b) Slumdog Millionaire

c) Gaalipata

d) RockOn

Yet another year comes to and end. Only couple of days worth remembering in a calendar of 366 days! Hope to add a lot next year!

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Njoy!

I GeT KnOckEd doWn!!

I get knocked down.
But I get up again.
You're never going to keep me down!

The plan was on since several days and finally the 'D'-day had arrived. Group of 6 colleagues along with our korean counterpart - all of us headed towards Jisan Forest Resort. For skiing !!!!!

Yesterday Bob(manager for our project in Korea) came to us and handed over the tickets. The plan was simple. Get up early. Catch resort bus from close by BusStation and reach resort by 930 AM in the morning. Ticket read the bus was scheduled to depart at 8.27AM. Eight Twenty Seven. It was neither 820, nor 830, but 827.

I should take a moment here and talk about time sense by Koreans. I kept an eye on my watch as to when the bus would arrive. Around 820 the bus reached our busStop. There were several guys waiting for the bus at our bus-stop, and we all boarded. Clock inside the bus was showing 826. As soon as the clock turned 827 - the bus started. Not a second early. Not a second late! This wasn't my first such encounter with timing-sense of korean's but definately memorable one.






Our team - Bob(Hyungu Lee, not in picture) Pavan, Maneesh, Ajay, Krishna, RamMohan & the Obvious.

We reached resort in time. With Bob's help, rented our skiing boards, clothes n all. Thermals - Pants and on top of it - ski suite. If you include inner's - its totally 4 layer protection! We had some food and headed straight to do the job for which we were here. 'Ski'.

There were 4 levels of moutain slopes. We took a tram and reached the starting point for 'Lemon' slope. Based on difficulty - slope's were named Lemon, Orange, and so on.

Ok. The easier steps were all but over. Now came the difficult part. Ski. :-)

Bob took time to explain us the basics. And he convinced us that it was not so difficult to learn. Easy said then done :-)

One hour down the line -- all of us were still lying on the ground, looking (staring) at other skiing people in wonder! We tried n tried n tried, but were unable to stand up. Small kids used to zoom in front of us. And we still trying to take our first baby step! Hands seemed stuck to ground. Was just unable to lift myself and stand up.

---

Why did I come here? was the question going on one side of my head.

One of my colleague (maneesh) some how managed to get up - and slide down for a distance. And then - 'Dhadoooom'. He fell with great impact on to the ground. He got up and tried again. The result was same. Probably I was afraid of falling and here came the inspiration.

'Dhakka de aur chal - zyaada nahi lagti' - maneesh told.

I finally decided to go for it. Gave a push and there I went...

Before one could count one, two and three -- I was lying on the ground again. But that run was good energy booster. My first Ski.

The entire slope was about 400 mts and I fell n number of times before I reached the bottom. Every time I used to start - slide for couple of mts and then 'Dhadoooom'. I didn't understand how to slow down or stop. & easiest way to stop that I could learn was - fall down. :-)

It was remember your old days again! Used to do the same when learning bi-cycle.

I get knocked down.
But I get up again.
You're never going to keep me down!

With that little bit of 'gained' confidence, We took the tram again and started again. Next few hours -- we repeated the same. The board was still controling us, we never were in control of board. And the stopping mechanism hadn't changed much till now. It was same. When ever speed increases, or if you see some-one in front -- Fall down!!

Amidst all this, Bob was trying to explain steps to slow down and stop. It was basic Physics. Press the board on its back edge, Increase friction and it will slow down. :-)

Finally we were able to take control on the ski board. This was after lot of repeated effort and it was awesome. We still kept on falling but at a lesser rate. We did try the second slope 'Orange' and what an experience it was!

Today - a day after skiing -- all the body parts, specially the backSeat and hands are dead paining. Had to do 'reverse sleep' exercise whole night! And sitting on a pillow in typical Sameer (DCH) style now !!

USiRa

S h a t a a b d i ! !

Train was 20 minutes late. Station was crowded. Hubli-Bangalore Janashatabdi finally arrived at Davanagere station. Good that we had reservation.

Me and my sister were returning from hometown after Diwali celebration. We boarded train and it took about 10 minutes to reach to our seats. A middle aged women had occupied my seat. Her brother requested me to let her sit and I obliged. To realize only after an Hour 'OMG! What the hell made me do that???! Have to stand for 5 more Hours !!'.

Anyway - I moved close to the train door corridor - and stood there. There were couple of guys (all 20-28 age band) standing in that corridor.

Train tooks its pace n was in full swing!

Few minutes down the line, TC came. About 5.4", little dark, thick moustache, white hairs, and bigger diameter stomach. He verified our tickets. There was one guy standing right next to the door. When TC asked, he took out his wallet from back pocket - and amidst bunch of papers, he was pulling out the ticket - and phew! it flew! He stretched his other hand quickly to hold it - invain. Ticket was gone!

I have hardly seen any Indian railway employees who are harsh spoken or bad behaved. This TC was no exception.

"Was it ticket??" TC asked calmly.

"Yes" reply came in very mild voice. He looked shaky.

"From where did you board?"

"Hubli. Going to Bangalore."

TC took a deep breath, looking that guy with a smile he said

"I bet - it wasn't a ticket. It was just a piece of paper!"

"No Sir. It was ticket" - a quick reply came.

"Ok. Tell me - At what time did you buy the ticket in Hubli?"

"At 1PM"

"Today?"

"Yes"

"What was the cost of the ticket?"

"141"

"Was it confirmed??"

"Yes"

The mild smile on TCs face got bigger and bigger after every question.

"Next time when you do this trick, do some preparatoin. For this train, we get our final charts at 11AM in the morning. Tickets will not be issued after charts are prepared. Cost of the ticket Rs.147, from the beginning of this month. Not 141. And the people who rserved their tickets yesterday are still in waiting list, your ticket got confirmed! Nice try. 147 + 250, 400 Rupees Please"

We all were dumb stuck! Including our crook. Our culprit started another drama. He showed his wallet and told he has only 220 rupees. Not a penny more.

TC smiled again and said

"Again I am confident that you have more than 400 rupees in your pocket. Shall I check?"

"No Sir. I have only this much. Promise. Other then this, I have mobile and a napkin. Thats it"

"Shall I check?"

"No Sir. I have only this much."

"Let me check - What ever excess you have, I ll take it." TC came a step forward.

Thats it. Our crook pulled out 2 more Gandhi green notes from his inner secret shirt pocket and handed over 400 Rupees to TC.

TC wrote the reciept and holding the reciept book in his hand, asked that guy

"Sign here".

TC turned towards rest of us and told (with a big smile on his face)-

"Can any of you tell me why I didnt give him my book for signature, and instead i held it myself?"

None replied.

"Try. Any guess?" - TC asked again.

Again none replied.

TC told "last time when I had caught such a guy, he threw my reciept book outside!!" and he burst out in heavy loud laugh! With his tummy vibrating in chorus!

So did we!

Your opinion matters. Would love to hear from you. Please do add comments!

USiRa

H y d e r a a b a a d

It started with a bang! Time was Eight-40 and train was "scheduled" to depart in next 10 mins. Sid and Lalith were still on their way to station. From IISC to Y'pur Platform-4 during buzy hours of the day in 10 minutes in auto - they were bound to miss the train.

Eight-50. Train started warming up for its long journey. It started crawling out from the station. Sid & Lalith not in sight yet! Anoop's cell rang ----

"Which platform?"

"4 - Kahan ho?"

"Green colour train kya?"

"Yes - Par tum log kaha ho?"

Call disconnected. Train took its pace n it was off the station in a flash.

A minute later - two smiling faces entered our compartment. Yes. They had made it. In typical filmy DDLJ/JabWeMet style. 

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Next two hours was fun. Train journey was always exciting. And what more you need when you are accompanied with eleven of your best buddies. Laugh riot was on - didnt even bother to see if rest of the sleeping people in our compartment were getting distrubed. Amidst all these - sid didnt miss a single opportunity to poke at girl on the side lines of the compartment. She was good. And for people working at L&T - she was definately an Oasis !!

8 Guys - 3 Aunties and a "kutty" kid. This was our total tour strength. All from the same project, working under the same roof. This made our discussions even more exciting. We talked about everyone. Spared none. From managers to maaali's. From technology to movies. Everything.

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Tum se log kahenge -- Na kar pyaar mujhe,

Main to lakh bura hu, Neend chura loo, Hosh uda loo,

Main to baat ko lekar, raah bula du, baat bana loo,

Chahe Jahaan - Dilko Chupa --

Baato hi baaton main, do mulakato main, Leloooo

Bachna Ae Haseeno -- Lo main Agaya... 

Areee Bachnaa Ae haseeno -- Lo main Agaya..

Husn ka aashiq, husn ka dushman;

Apni ada hai yaaron se judaa, Aye ho! 

Our tour anthem! & Didn't we remind ourself to sing it atleast once in an Hr? Ofcourse. Didn't matter where we were - who were around, we gave respect to our anthem. In Chorus!

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0600 Hrs. Rain God had already made pretty good preparation for our welcome. It was flooding water all around. Where ever you see - it was just water. N it was still pouring down. Not a good start. And In typical h'badi style - we reachd our apartments from station. 2 Auto's. 10 People. Carrying equally heavy bags. The count 10 was excluding the driver, and including aunties ! :-)

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Apartment - small cozy one. Considering the short notice that we gave regarding numbers and arrival time - I should say they had managed a decent one. Took some time to freshen up and then started photo session which was not supposed to end for next 2 days. Model Manjot & Photographer Ekka !

After a bit of wait - our journey to roam around h'bad got a start. What's the first thing that come's to one's mind when we hear the name 'hyderabad'?. Yes. Its Hyderabadi Biryani. First things first. And this is what we headed towards - Hotel Paradise. And the hype didnt flatter. The biryani was the second best I ever had in my life (First best is ofcourse what I prepare at home! ). Great meal indeed. Perfectly cooked with perfect mix of spices. Marinated pieces of lamb melting in your mouth. And that aroma --- Ooooooo. Mouth watering.

Now started the big dilemma! What next?? After few suggestions and quarrels, whether to go to Golkonda/Charminar/etc - we headed to do some shopping! Yes shopping! No Golkonda - No Charminar - But to a shopping mall. This is what will happen if you are accompanied by girls! Sid, being partially local to h'bad had different plans in his mind. One of the best pubs in H'bad was attatched to this mall & we gave it a shot. Made good use of Happy Hours! Wooow - This was the best possible Win-Win situation. Girls did their business and we did our's !! :-)

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Next pit stop: Snow world. We were expecting a bit too much and were disappointed a bit when we entered the snow world. A Inch or two of snow all over, a "snow" volleyball court, an Igloo, a slider (not much exciting even in first run) and thats it. Initial few minutes were boring, but wait. It wasnt over yet. Fun part started when we started doing what snow was intended to be - making snow balls and throwing at each other. Aaaah! Kid amongst all of was came out. We started running, jumping, escaping from snow balls, throwing snow balls after lil hide n seek, attacking in a group, targetting one after a bit of discussion, drama as if you are deeply hurt to escape from snow, everything. This "return to childhood" was simply amazing.

And when we thought we had good time, Music was switched on amidst light snow drizzle. Fun time isnt over yet. Group dance! Everyone participated and oh boy! Didn't we had a great time. Yes we did! And also, we did n't forget to sing our anthem 'Bachnaaa Aee Haseenooo'!

A couple of scary houses were attatched to this snow world. One was dark jungle and other was skeleton world. We all went in at the same time, did manage to scare couple of ghosts. And yet again sang our anthem! :-)

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We came out of snow world and headed straight to Charminar. Good historic place, but asusual - not properly maintained. All girls headed towards bangle street. Visiting Charminar wasn't their major intention, shopping was. Amazingly glittering street. 100's of shops, either side of the road selling all kinds of bangles! Worth a watch during night.

We all had seen the movie Angrez and hence wanted to taste "Irani Chai". Bunch of guys headed in search of the same. After quering in couple of tea shops, finally found one. Placed the order and supplier came in with cups of tea. Just to be sure - we enquired -

" Irani Chai hain na"

" Irani Virani pata nahi Saab - Yaheech Chai milta idhar!" -- the waiter responded and handed us those tea cups.

That virtual Irani Chai wasnt bad either. But still were disappointed coz we couldn't try our Irani Chai.

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"Bucket List"

0045 Hrs
At my Home -

A call from my frnd disturbd my pretty good deep-sleep. And by default, like any of hyper-active software engineer -- one of the bug - a software bug started creeping in my head. Several times, 've found fixes for several bugs like this -- in wee hours, whilst bath or in toilet or while in half sleep !!

Suddenly wanderin mind came to halt. My thoughts changed. Startd thinkin about day-2-day acitivities. Wht a terrible mechanical life we have. Monday mornin to Friday Evenin --- its jst campuutarrr! It was now i startd thinkin of "I W i s h - to - d o - t h i n g s - b e f o r e - p a c k U p". I listd few in those wee hours.. few addin now.

1. A snap with my "King - His Highness" friend


And I want it to be as natural as possible. Like - me keeping hands on his back or face close to his face! Preferably with a clean Jungle backGround ...

2. Apun ka photo in front page of a popular news paper.
Although this sounds a bit copied from Dusvidaniya. No, Its not. Its one of my long term dream. I believe many people are in that bandWagon.

3. Solo Sky Diving!